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Uganda
Tanzania
Ethiopia
Kenya
Mali
Nigeria
Senegal
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Madagascar
Uganda
There is a heavy burden of sexual and reproductive health issues among young people due to a lack of knowledge about services, cultural norms regarding sexual activity, and high cost and poor quality services that prevent them from accessing services that leave them in poor health. Youth leaders in Uganda and Zimbabwe acted boldly to denounce the barriers they face, which led to the coordination of GFF/RMNCAH+N processes in their countries and advocate for GFF funds to be allocated towards making health centres accessible to people living with disabilities and facilitating adolescents’ access to contraceptives and other affordable sexual and reproductive health services. The Naguru Youth Health Network, with support from the GFF CSO Hub, documented their fights through the following videos: Uganda success story:
Naguru Youth Health Network UGANDA
Tanzania
CSOs of the GFF Tanzania coordinating group were trained by Health Promotion Tanzania on how to plan budgets and track results. CSO GFF coordinating groups have been increasing government efforts to achieve GFF-targeted results in their respective regions through advocacy work. As reported by Strengthening Primary Health Care for Results (P152736), 13 of 16 indicators met the annual targets as of December 31, 2020. Most importantly, Increasing access to medicines, vitamin A supplements and ANC4+ at health facilities.
Health Promotion Tanzania HDT
Civil society's actions in Tanzania prevented a missed opportunity to invest in PHC. Through budgetary and financial analysis, Health Promotion Trust and the CSO health coalition revealed that disbursement was lagging in the GFF Trust Funded project, intended to improve maternal and child health through strengthening primary health care. Deeper analysis showed that the government had not met key indicators necessary to unlock the remaining $106 million of the GFF project funds. This was preventing money from being released from the World Bank. Following the findings and pressure from the CS advocacy community, the government requested a no-cost extension from the World Bank and took necessary actions to meet the performance indicators. CSOs and the government are now working together on a plan to increase primary health care in Tanzania with the remainder of the USD 106 million.
Civil society's actions in Tanzania
Ethiopia
The Consortium of Reproductive Health Associations (CORHA) networking led to the appointment of a GFF liaison at the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. A concept note was developed to strengthen CSO engagement and build their capacity for health financing and budget tracking.
The Consortium of Reproductive Health Associations (CORHA) in Ethiopia
Kenya
In Kenya, the Health NGOs’ Network (HENNET) led the creation of the GFF Civil Society Coordinating group. The group’s main objective is to facilitate meaningful CSO engagement in the GFF processes and has successfully educated 200 CSOs on the GFF mechanism in 2020. Furthermore, they developed the CSO engagement strategy as well as CSO scorecards for the GFF. In addition, the RMNCAH+N Multi Stakeholders platform was established in January 2021 due to group advocacy efforts that started in 2017. As a result, five seats were reserved for civil society organisations. The CSOs in Kenya have consistently advocated through these platforms for policy development and domestic resource mobilisation, social mobilisation for service utilisation, mutual accountability for results and resources, prioritisation of community needs, and policy and service delivery that is informed by rigorous research.
Health NGOs’ Network (HENNET) KENYA
Mali
FENASCOM in Mali successfully led the creation of the Malian Civil Society GFF Platform for RMNCAH+N “La Plateforme des Organisations de la Société Civile Malienne en soutien au GFF en faveur de la SRMNEA + N. The platform plays a critical role in bridging the gap between the GFF, government, and the local communities and aims to mobilise resources to address the challenges communities face in accessing healthcare for mothers and children.
Fédération Nationale des Associations de Santé Communautaire FENASCOM Mali
Nigeria
In 2020, Nigerian CSOs developed a scorecard which enabled them to request access to information on the GFF resources used by the Ministry of Finance and subsequently were able to push the government to timely release GFF finances to support RMNCAH+N efforts in the country. The Adolescent and Youth Health Scorecard was developed and populated in 2021, allowing CSOs to access important information such as how to finance adolescent and youth health.
Options E4A and African Health Budget Network Nigeria
Senegal
In Senegal, the GFF provided an opportunity for CSOs to advance community accountability and ownership, and thereby maintain improvements in community health systems to live beyond the project lifecycle. The Kolda and Tambacounda regions have the poorest RMNCAH health outcomes in the country; and have been identified as priority regions for the country’s GFF funded project. A youth-led project (led by the Alliance Nationale des Jeunes pour la Sante de la Reproduction), monitors the quality of health services through community engagement, has changed attitudes toward adolescent health and built community capacity and ownership over local health priorities. Now community members are engaging with health workers and district health management teams to ensure married women and adolescent girls have access to RMNCAH services, including family planning, and to ensure girls stay in school and do not marry early. The GFF project has seen a surge in community ownership during the past year as families, youths, traditional and religious leaders, and community health workers have collaborated on monitoring its implementation.
Senegal
Zambia
In Zambia, when COVID-19 hit, the CSO community mobilized quickly to maintain essential health services, particularly for youth. People were reluctant to go to health facilities for fear of contracting COVID-19; and many youth-friendly health centers shut down. Center for Reproductive Health and Education (CRHE) worked with the private sector to map out where youth friendly SRHR services were still available and launched a social media and flyer campaigns to share this information with youth. This contributed to a smaller decrease in health seeking behavior in the facilities that were mapped out, than would have been without the campaign.
Zambia
Zimbabwe
There is a heavy burden of sexual and reproductive health issues among young people due to a lack of knowledge about services, cultural norms regarding sexual activity, and high cost and poor-quality services that prevent them from accessing services that leave them in poor health. Youth leaders in Uganda and Zimbabwe acted boldly to denounce the barriers they face, which led to the coordination of GFF/RMNCAH+N processes in their countries and advocate for GFF funds to be allocated towards making health centres accessible to people living with disabilities and facilitating adolescents’ access to contraceptives and other affordable sexual and reproductive health services. The Naguru Youth Health Network, with support from the GFF CSO Hub, documented their fights through the following video: Zimbabwe success story video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5v3qJn7wJg
IGNITE YOUTH Organization Zimbabwe & Naguru Youth Health Network
Madagascar
The HINA Civil Society Platform strongly contributes to the fight against undernutrition or “Kere” in the South of Madagascar, specifically in the regions of Atsimo Andrefana, Ambovombe and Anosy. Thanks to the advocacy carried out by its members, HINA encouraged the government to collaborate with CSOs and other key stakeholders to implement coordinated actions in response to malnutrition, including the establishment of effective strategies to promote SRMNEA + N but also the organization of Open Days for Nutrition in the Region of Matsiatra Ambony. On the other hand, the HINA platform also contributed to the finalization of the country’s investment framework for SRMNEA+N 2020 - 2024 and to the creation of a Civil Society Organizations health coalition to address the COVID-19 crisis.
La Plateforme de la Société Civile HINA /Madagascar
